Genuinely curious:

Is the author saying that ACO and VBC were decent ideas that got UHG’s fingers grafted into the legal structure, or are they just saying that ACO and VBC are bad in general?

And I knew that we had some awful structures within our healthcare system, but I LOATHE UHG and didn’t realize that they OWN our medical system. Disgusting.

I see someone has found the back alley of the Geoff’s Trash Anime restaurant.

The update has been queued for about a month on my work computer. No. I won’t do it.

Guess I’m no longer an Apple fan. Huh. I’m just locked in at this point. Switching would just spread my data around more and I’m already committed to not upgrading for a few years.

So Prey team made Redfall and Dishonored team is making the new Blade game? Good to know!

Been playing Dishonored for the first time and really enjoying it. I’m only at the bridge and trying to play a low/no kill game. I’m not succeeding just yet, but it’s been really enjoyable and they do stealth really well. I’m baffled that they mismanaged to get the team that made this and Prey to push out Redfall? Man.

Just picked up FFVII after the second or third hiatus or my third or fourth attempt to play it. FINALLY made it to the Nibelheim story and past Midgard. And that somehow still manages to work on me as a first time player.

Just beat Banner Saga 1 and have never felt so much like a failure after “beating” a game. That game is trying to unseat This War of Mine for decisions regretted/minute.

I’m wanting to start up my Nintendo series playthroughs again by either starting Mario Galaxy 2 or trying to remember what on earth was happening in Majora’s Mask (3DS) something about the water temple maybe?

Hmm…

So I only use Brave for YouTube. I definitely won’t be recommending it, but I’m torn between whether I’m being a leech of ad-free user generating what should be near zero revenue or if I’m being valuable as a number to ad to user counts.

I use “Observational Maintenance” all the time:

When you ask someone to look at a problem and it’s fixed by the time they do.

A friend showed me an issue they’d been having for over a YEAR. I did almost NOTHING and it was working by the time I looked at it.

More often than not it’s me that looks dumb, though.p

Never mind. See below.

I beat Hyper Light Drifter for the first time. And I think I spent some time on the new Mario kart levels, though that might have been last week.

HLP is a fascinating game with a novel approach to gameplay and world building. A few controls issues annoyed me, but they were growing pains and not fully learning the system. I love games that use that particular art style. I think I’m doing Mario Galaxy next.

I’m trying to figure out my second Voucher game to get.

My top choices are: Arceus - I enjoy pokemon, but it sounds like a lot of “research” busy work. Pikmin 4 - I haven’t clicked with Pikmin demos previously, but the idea has always seemed pretty interesting if I’d let it go farther. Mario Wonder - feels shorter, and more peripheral to my interest, but I’ve heard great things. Xenoblade 3 - I’ve only played XBX before and not all the way through. RPGs aren’t completely my thing, but I’ve heard great things.

None of them are THE game I’m after with pros and cons to each. The decision paralysis is rough and I don’t see anything worth waiting for before May.

Aldi’s Clancy’s chips. Name brand are just too greasy for me. Also, I just tried their garlic bread chips and those are dangerous.

TL;DR:

Stores that are closing in New York, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco were all able to analyzed for a variety of theft crimes as compared to nearby stores in their cities. In each case, stores that are closing are less than or similar to nearby stores in reported rates of these crimes. Other locations mentioned by Target were not able to be analyzed, either due to insufficient data or no comparable stores in those cities.

In addition, “shrink” rates for Target locations continues a regular oscillation of between 1.2% and 1.6% of gross sales, often correlating with movement in retail sales overall. Of factors that contribute to shrink, retail theft is only one. Others factors include employee theft, processing, and administrative mistakes.

Popular Info points to these data and announced plans for smaller stores being built near to many of the closures as a possible indicator of other factors leading to these closures than theft. The announcement and blame came out the same day as an industry group’s report on the impacts of retail theft on sales.

It’s two halves of a bagel stuck together with jam and peanut butter to reform a solid torus. It’s math. They COULD have had an easy time eating your math, but the construction made it more difficult.

Came here to say The Locked Tomb is FANTASTIC meme humor and so witty in almost every way. However it’s a series that I’m convinced I’ll never actually understand. I’m on Nona now and things are barely better. Harrow had me second guessing every fact and almost pulling out a cork board, pins, and string to just understand when what happened to whom.

One of my favorite new series, though. And it’s been a delight to buddy read with my wife.

That game should be mailed directly to dictators and war mongers everywhere.

“THIS. THIS is what you want for your people? For ANY people? “

For me, my “misery is the point” game was This War of Mine. I got it just before Ukraine, but still couldn’t stomach it. My first character had a kid that was constantly crying and whimpering and I just couldn’t do it. I was bad at it—if you can be good. I couldn’t help others in the ways that I wanted to. I couldn’t stop the whimpering. Then I went out as someone else and came back and the dad and kid left. And I had to stop there for a bit.

I set it down to come back later, then Ukraine happened. Where it was hard to stomach while I knew this was hypothetical and the Euro-setting was pretty abstracted from the current reality there—though still very present elsewhere—knowing that people on the ground were looking and sounding similar to what was happening in game and seeing that in news daily just cut off any desire I had to play. It’s powerful and DEEPLY empathetic, but that spiral of misery and failure was the point and it made it in spades.

Gold Mario and Gold Kart parts. It started as a self brag (I usually just play solo) then turned into a challenge, then turned into my main. Mainly due to weight and speed.

Petey Piranha and Wiggler have recently shown up as contenders for weight and speed, though, so I might end up trying them more and more.

I’m a few hundred dollars in and I’m actually on my way out thanks to their grossness this spring. I’m too slow to have gone for many modules, but rules books were super fun and thus a money sink. I’m trying to move my group over to PbtA (cheap by comparison) or Genesys (have you seen the cost of those DICE?!).

My wallet is happy I can’t manage to get groups together to play games and justify buying more games. I’m not.

That’s definitely my hope.